Creamy Tortellini Chicken Soup

February 28, 2019

This is a nearly infamous soup on the slowcooking subreddit, originally attributed to a blog called 365 days of slow cooking- it’s a simple and hearty soup that builds deceptively complex flavor despite being a one-pot dish. What’s clever about this dish is it cooks several components for different amounts of time to build a rich and complementary flavor. You’ll pressure cook the chicken in a simple broth with tomatoes and herbs, and then remove that chicken from the liquid to carve while you’re cooking the tortellini in the resulting flavorful broth.

You can use frozen or fresh tortellini, and you’ll just need to modify the cooking time of the tortellini in the 6th step according to the directions on the package.

Equipment

Instructions

On the Instant Pot's Sauté mode, heat a tablespoon of olive oil. Add the onions to sweat them for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir, for another two minutes.

Add the chicken thighs and stir to lightly sear the outside.

Add the basil, tomato paste, chicken stock, diced tomatoes, and bay leaf and stir the ingredients to combine. Cover and close the pressure valve, and press the "Poultry" button on the Instant Pot. If you are using a different model of pressure cooker, this is a 15 minute electric high pressure cook setting.

When the timer is up, do a quick release of the pressure cooker.

Using tongs, remove the bay leaf from the soup and transfer the chicken to a cutting board.

Switch the Instant Pot back to Sauté mode and add the tortellini for the amount of time indicated to cook on the packaging, or about 5 minutes.

While the tortellini is boiling, roughly chop the chicken with a cleaver. It should be nearly falling apart after the pressure cooker so you could even shred the meat with two forks or tongs if you like.

When there is one minute left on the tortellini, stir the spinach into the instant pot to wilt it slightly. Note in the picture it looks like the pot is overflowing but the spinach mass will decrease dramatically as it cooks.

When the tortellini is fully cooked, turn the heat off on the Instant Pot and add the chopped chicken back to the pot.

Complete by adding the grated pecorino and half and half. Stir to combine and serve immediately.